“A DISGRACE ON THE FAIR NAME OF MAYNOOTH.”

 

“A disgrace on the fair name of Maynooth.” 

Liam Kenny

The County Council election tempo intensifies with the local media brimming with

stories and news from the campaign trails throughout the county. However, the days when the newspapers gave explicit advice to their readers as regards who to favour when they marked their ballot papers are long gone.

At the time of the first council elections in 1899 the then editor of the Leinster Leader had no difficulty in showing a hand for a candidate in the following terms: ‘Mr. James Cummins of Windgates (Celbridge) … has the temerity to pit himself against Mr. John Field of Kilcock, the chosen candidate of a duly convened public meeting recently held in Rathcoffey.’

And if the newspaper editorials were lively so too was electioneering on the ground. In Maynooth it was reported that a meeting called to endorse the candidature of a Mr. Ronaldson was broken up by ‘a howling mob, whose most conspicuous features were turmoil, disorder and drunkenness.’ The fact that the meeting took place on St. Patrick’s Day, 1899 may explain the latter vice as the rival candidate, Lord Frederick Fitzgerald of the great Carton family, was absolved from involvement in what the writer declared was ‘a disgrace and blot on the fair name of Maynooth.’

Monasterevin too had a near brush with electioneering excesses with supporters of the rival candidates, Dowling and Cassidy, contesting ground. The Kildare Observer report noted: ‘Those best informed attribute the ultimate outbreak of hostilities to a narrow section, who having seized control of the local fife and drum band — originally established on neutral lines … refused to allow this band to attend the meeting at Kildangan, which on this occasion, was in favour of Mr. Cassidy. This was the first genuine Irish row witnessed in Monasterevin for a considerable number of years …’

Punctuated by such drama the build-up to the county’s first democratic local elections moved to its April 1899 climax. Fortunately, the date of election had been fixed for the week before Punchestown week — otherwise the attentions of Kildare voters may have been diverted from their democratic duty!

Apart from the political propaganda the Kildare electorate benefited from a public information campaign run in the press to educate them on the detail of exercising their new found franchise. The material yielded such gems as:

‘… anyone who is not quite sure of his ability to avoid serious mistakes that may lead to a waste of his vote should not be ashamed to consult those who are better informed. It is no disgrace to be unacquainted with the regulations of a new and unworked system.’

The electorate of Kildare went to the polls on 6 April 1899 with the polling stations opened from 10am to 8pm. The times reflected the relaxed largely rural lifestyle of the time. No rushing off to get the 7am train or bus on the commuting grind to the city.

There was potential for confusion at the polling booth in that every elector was voting for at least two local government bodies — the County Council and the relevant Rural District Council. However the authorities had got around the problem by an innovation described as ‘colour voting’ with voters being given different colour ballot papers: white for the county council elections and yellow for the district councils.

The votes were counted in Naas Courthouse on the following day under the supervision of Mr. Charles Daly, Sub-Sheriff and Returning Officer. News of the results spread on the telegraph wires to the furthest points of the county.

In the north-west extremity of the county the Broadford Fife and Drum Band took to the roads of Carbury to celebrate the election of Mr. Moore O’Ferral. The bonfires blazed also in Monasterevin where Mr. Cassidy’s success was feted with banners such as ‘Cassidy our Councillor’ and ‘Cassidy for Ever’ being displayed across the streets. A grateful Mr. Cassidy rewarded such enthusiastic local support by presenting his distillery workmen with a new set of instruments for their band!

In the neighbouring town of Kildare Mr. John Heffernan’s election sparked rejoicing. The inevitable fife and drum band was in action there too and the crowd stopped outside Mr. Heffernan’s house to hear him addressing his victory speech from an upstairs window.

In Naas where a particularly bitter contest had taken place the victorious Stephen J. Brown was chaired through the streets in a torchlight procession; his vanquished competitor Thomas J. de Burgh was left to lick his electoral wounds in his estate at Oldtown. His rejection must have been all the more severe when he read that another member of the county gentry, Lord Frederick Fitzgerald, had been elected despite questions about his commitment to Irish aspirations. Such reservations were put aside by the populace of the town on his election for the Maynooth and Leixlip electoral division of the County Council. He was met at Maynooth station by a brass band and amid scenes ‘of wild enthusiasm was carried to his carriage outside where a procession was formed … and escorted all the way to Carton, the crowd cheering vociferously.’

However, such excitement regarding the elections was to be short-lived and indeed never quite repeated for any subsequent county council election. The electioneering for the county’s first democratic local elections was now over. It was time to get down to the gritty business of convening the first council meeting and getting to work on the many issues which the people wanted resolved including repair of roads, provision of water supply and sanitation, and resolving housing and local maintenance problems. The expectations of the public from their elected council have changed little in the century and more since the first elections in 1899. Candidates beware! Leinster Leader 13 May 2014, Looking Back, Series no: 382.